Producers from the Austrian broadcaster and Iranian state broadcaster (pictured) inked a deal to produce Wild Iran: The Desert Phantom, a natural history film that will debut in 2017.

Austrian pubcaster ORF has inked a coproduction deal with Iranian state broadcaster IRIB to produce a natural history film about the country’s wildlife.

Wild Iran: The Desert Phantom will focus the elusive Persian cheetah, the Persian gazelle, the Persian leopard and Persian wild ass, as well as golden eagles, brown bears and flamingoes.

Changiz Hasani, the general director of Iran’s IRIB, and Richard Grasl, ORF’s CFO, and Heinrich Mayer-Moroni from Vienna’s Interspot Film signed a memorandum of understanding for the coproduction at ORF’s stand at MIPCOM in Cannes (pictured above) on Wednesday (October 15).

The project, which has the full support of IRIB and Iranian conservation authorities, will debut in 2017. ORF-Enterprise will handle distribution.

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Daniele Alcinii is a news editor at realscreen, the leading international publisher of non-fiction film and television industry news and content. He joined the RS team in 2015 with experience in journalism following a stint out west with Sun Media in Edmonton's Capital Region, and with communications work in Melbourne, Australia and Toronto. You can follow him on Twitter at @danielealcinii.